Springtime flower-viewing tours are emerging as a major attraction across China ahead of this year’s Qingming Festival, with cities and rural destinations rolling out cultural performances, interactive travel services and countryside experiences to lure visitors and boost the tourism economy.
Falling on April 5 this year, the Qingming Festival, or Tomb-Sweeping Day, is a traditional Chinese festival for honoring the deceased and paying tributes to ancestors. The three-day holiday also provides a short break for Chinese citizens to enjoy outdoor activities and sightseeing in pleasant springtime temperatures.
In north China’s Tianjin Municipality, both locals and tourists from other parts of the country have gathered for a begonia flower festival, running from Saturday to April 12, which features 123 performances throughout the event.
At the city’s well-known Wudadao historical urban area, or the Five Great Avenues, begonia blossoms are now in full bloom, while newly launched sightseeing carriages have added a fresh highlight, bringing in a larger influx of visitors ahead of the holiday.
To enhance the festive atmosphere, nearly 200 local businesses have decorated their storefronts in a festival theme.
Tianjin has also introduced new efforts to integrate culture, tourism and commerce. A locally developed mini-program as well as multiple interactive games combine festival schedules, guided maps, recommended routes and discount coupons, allowing tourists to access services and unlock surprises during their visits.
During last year’s three-day Qingming holiday, the festival helped major scenic spots and commercial areas in the city’s Heping District receive more than 3 million visits, generating over 800 million yuan (about 116 million U.S. dollars) in combined tourism-related revenue.
This year, local authorities expect both visitor numbers and overall revenue to rise even further.
Similar momentum is also being seen in central China’s Hunan Province. In Xiangfeng Village in Changsha City, rapeseed flowers are now in full bloom, drawing crowds of holiday travelers and turning the village into a popular flower-viewing destination on the outskirts of the provincial capital ahead of Qingming.
The village has developed more than 10 featured courtyard-style businesses, including teahouses, eco-farms, yoga courses and rural art centers.
These venues cover a wide range of services such as dining, team-building, wellness, art education and camping, helping build a diversified rural industry that combines agricultural tourism, wellness tourism and commercial tourism.
In the first quarter of this year alone, the village received about 120,000 tourist visits, generating 4.8 million yuan (around 698,000 U.S. dollars) in tourism income.
The growing courtyard economy has helped turn natural scenery into real economic gain, creating jobs for villagers and providing them with a steady increase in income.
In east China’s Anhui Province, spring blossoms are also bringing a boost to rural tourism.
On the shores of Jianshan Lake in Chaohu, Hefei City, blooming peach flowers and rapeseed flowers have attracted large numbers of tourists in recent days.
Jianshan Lake, a reservoir covering over 50 hectares, has also become a hub for both professional and recreational water activities.
While trained athletes practice motorboat events on the lake, ordinary visitors can also enjoy boat rides and go-kart-style watercraft experiences.
The area has further enriched its tourism offerings with camping zones, a pet-themed park and fruit-picking gardens, providing a wider range of activities for holiday travelers.
The integrated development of agriculture, culture and tourism has also created new employment opportunities for local residents, enabling more villagers to find jobs closer to home and improve their incomes as the spring tourism season gains pace.
Tourism, culture, commerce blend across China during Qingming Festival holiday
Authorities in southwest China’s Xizang Autonomous Region have been implementing public wellbeing programs to ensure a good start to the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), as high-quality public service resources continue to reach grassroots communities.
The Xizang Hospital, being built under the auspices of the West China Second University Hospital of Sichuan University, which was included in the fourth batch of national regional medical center projects in October 2022, is under construction.
Once operational, it will save local residents’ trips to other provinces for medical treatment, effectively addressing the shortage of high-quality medical resources in the region.
During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, the regional government will make simultaneous efforts to increase the income of urban and rural residents, optimize basic public services, and broaden employment channels. It will also ensure that the number of families with no employed members is steadily reduced to zero, promote work-relief programs, and increase new urban employment opportunities.
Meanwhile, Xizang will step up the construction of county-level medical and health consortia, achieve full coverage of public childcare services at the prefecture level, and improve education, medical care, elderly care, and childcare services.
“We will continue to take improving people’s livelihood and rallying people’s support as our ultimate objectives, focusing on increasing employment and people’s income, improving education quality, medical and health care, social security, elderly care, and childcare services, so that the achievements of building a new modern socialist Xizang can benefit more people in a fair manner,” said Wang Jingcai, deputy director of the regional development and reform commission.
Authorities in Xizang roll out public wellbeing programs to ensure good start to 15th Five-Year Plan
